British Culture Week will be held in Cuba from December 4 to 12 with different activities that will make it an inclusive and diverse event in many ways.

This is how the British Ambassador to Cuba, Antony Stokes, described it, who also celebrated being able to meet with the country´s press after the pause caused by the pandemic, and thanked the Cuban institutions that have collaborated to make the event possible.

He explained that the concept of the British Culture Week in Cuba is the mixture of the two cultures, not only to promote one or the other, but the fusion of both, which can even create something new in different features.

Antony Stokes stressed that the event will be displayed for everyone, regardless of ideas, religion, sexual orientation, gender, age, money or financial background. 

Byrn Orton, second secretary of the British Embassy highlighted at the press conference some of the activities that make up the program.

He began with the two gala evenings which the event begins, starring prestigious Cuban dance Companies: The National Ballet of Cuba and Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, both presenting works by British choreographers.

With these performances the two Cuban dance companies will return to the stages after the break caused by the Covid-19 outbreak, and do so to joint together for two nights only in a celebration of the works of British choreographers.

The Sala Avellaneda of the National Theater will host two special galas on the 4th and 5th of December,

The pieces Danza de amor que se fue, by Billy Cowie and Próspera by Cathy Marston, have been chosen for this event.

Both are the two most recent choreographies created by British artists for Cuban companies, based on literary works by Federico García Lorca and William Shakespeare.

Danza de amor que se fue will allow to see another Contemporary Dance Company, poetic minimalist, reflexive, with ten women on stage to take us to a less dance and more told theatricality.

With Próspera, created for the BNC, Cathy Marston will bring the public closer to The Tempest, by the famous English author, and she draws it naked, minimal, with the veins of the theater at the surface, letting the dance and the bodies share the motives of the piece.

The gala has been designed to pay homage to this fusion of British creators, of two different aesthetic tendencies, with the skills, expressive strength and depth of the Cuban dancers.

He also pointed out that the concert given by the British singer Celeste, who has been nominated for an Oscar award and will perform on December 7th at Martí Theater, will be accompanied by Cuban musicians under the musical production of Jorge Luis Lagarza.

The exhibition Families, by the Cuban photographer Eduardo Rawdriguez, will be one of the outdoor attractions of this edition, since for the first time images of nine square meters will be exhibited on the balconies of Plaza Vieja, while eight others will be shared on social networks.

Among the actions highlighted by Orton is the open-air cinema proposal, which will be offered in the Amphitheater of the Historic Center with the exhibition of two films: Pride (2014) and The Suffragists (2016).

The week will close with a rally of classic British cars on December 12th at the Plaza de San Francisco de Asís which hill seek to show the diversity of English cars in Cuba with the 15 participating cars.

Source: Tribuna de la Habana with information from ACN